Author Embraces New Definitions of Feminism

Feminists often view marriage and motherhood as oppressing and
limiting. Many traditionalists, on the other hand, preach women's
responsibility to stay home with children. Left without a voice are
the majority of American women who don't identify completely with
either philosophy.

That's the situation according to Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, who
believes the United States needs a new kind of feminist movement.

"Neither side {feminists or traditionalists} is really talking
about women's lives," says Dr. Fox-Genovese, a professor of
humanities and history at Emory University in Atlanta. "In fact,
right now it seems both sides are hardening their positions."

Fox-Genovese, interviewed recently in her home not far from
campus about the issues raised in her new book, "Feminism Is Not
the Story of My Life," advocates a feminism that brings women
together instead of dividing them. And although she knows of no
organized group to push this position forward, she says growing
numbers of women are defining their own model of feminism.

Instead of agonizing over how to balance work and family or when
or whether to have children, "I think there's a younger generation
that's saying ... 'I'm going to do it differently,' " Fox-Genovese
says. This is "a generation where women are doing as well as men,
getting into professional and graduate schools. They're saying, 'I
am going to have some time to have a baby; I'm good, I'll go back,
or I'll keep at it at a slightly reduced rate.' "

The feminist movement has for the most part spoken only to the
upscale, single, career woman, Fox-Genovese says. "But the majority
of working women are mothers or about to be, and the majority of
mothers are working women, so the feminists should be heralding the
working mother," she says. …

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